LED

LED light bulbs have been around for a while now and are a great way to go green to save electricity and money compared to traditional incandescent bulbs. The other cool thing about LED bulbs is that they can be fitted with multiple color LEDs allowing the user to control the light color. With hundreds of color choices, choosing the right color of light for your space can be a challenge, but not for the Ilumi smartbulb.

Do you miss those blinking shoes you had as a kid? Blinky.Shoes aims to fill that inner void, and it takes the technology to the next level. Blinky.Shoes are LED light strips with different colored LEDs and an accelerometer. They attach to one’s existing shoes via velcro, and have a circuit board and battery pack to control it all. The light strips are also open to customization, and users can program them with their own patterns and designs.

Typically, a 3D printer uses some sort of resin or other material to print physical objects that you can hold and touch. An architect from India named Ekaggrat Singh Kalsi has invented a system that combines light art with 3D printing to make a printer that creates virtual objects using light. A camera is required to capture the finished light print.

Saffron has introduced its new Silk LED light bulb, and unlike some of its competitors that allow users to play music or set it to different colors, the Silk bulb has a more utilitarian purposes: it is designed to "bring sunlight inside", says the makers, combating the problems of artificial lighting. While artificial light has big effects on one’s internal clock, the Silk light adjusts its lighting colors automatically over the course of the day to mimic the sun.

When it comes to a smartphone’s camera, many users side-step the flash — for day time and incognito snaps, it doesn’t serve much purpose. There are times when the built-in flash is needed, though, and in those times it usually proves inadequate, perhaps just strong enough to illuminate nearby subjects but not much else. iBlazr presented a solution to that with its first external smartphone flash by the same name, and now it is back with a refined version called the iBlazr 2.

The days of light bulbs that can play music are upon us, and another option in the still sparse market has arisen: the Twist light bulb. Rather than using Bluetooth to connect to a mobile device, however, it can stream music over AirPlay and Wi-Fi. The speaker functionality is joined by LEDs and color that changes based on preference and the time of day. Says the maker, the light Twist gives off is a bluish white in the morning, and becomes a warmer color in the evening. In addition, the Twist bulb can mimic the sun’s own patterns for better integration with your lighting system.

Projectors have a bunch of uses from allowing the user to show presentations at the office to a large group of people, to allowing you to watch movies and TV shows on a huge screen at home. One downside to projectors with traditional light bulbs inside is that the bulbs are expensive and have a shorter lifespan than you might think. LED projectors on the other hand have very long bulb life.

Forget bulbs that burn out after a month of use. Heck, forget lights that burn out after one year. Jake Dyson of the Dyson electronics group just introduced the Jake Dyson Light, a lamp that uses LED light that lasts for 37 years. "Their lights are built to fail and don't seem to mind," said Dyson of his company's competitors, "We mind. So we've invented the first light that cools LEDs properly. As a result, it lasts for 37 years." Dyson then dropped the mic and walked off the stage.

Philips has a new remote control for its hue wireless lights in the pipeline, along with a brighter version of its color-changing bulb. The new products, revealed during regulatory testing at the FCC, include an update on the original hue bulb with an 800 lumen version. However, it's the new Hue Dimmer Switch which is arguably more interesting, given how it potentially addresses a common complaint among those with the remote-controlled bulbs installed in their homes.

You turn on the porch light to complement your relaxing evening outdoors, only to have the light serve as a beacon for every insect in the region. The same happens in the middle of the night when you've one light on and the window screen fills with bugs hoping to get inside because of it. That can be bothersome, but in the case of mosquitos and some other insects, it could also potentially be deadly if the little bugs bring diseases with them.